Miyajima

Christina, Monica and I are spending the day exploring Miyajima, this island off the coast of Hiroshima most well-known for its unashamedly hungry deer and enormous orange torii. This gate marks the entrance to the Itsukushima Shrine.

We walked over 16,000 steps and 113 flights in high humidity. Today was a feat.

Breakfast:

Green tea — adzuki filled matcha buns

Snack while hiking:

Some of Monica’s strawberry popcorn — some of Christina’s “granola bar”

According to Christina, calorie mate bars were designed so that a person could live off of these for awhile and still obtain all their nutrients. I guess you could call these the solid version of Soylent.

Snack midway through hiking:

Adzuki bun

Snack after hiking:

One of Christina’s baked sweet potatoes

Dango (rice balls on a stick)

Momiji manjyu (maple pastry) filled with lemon

A Miyajima specialty! Not that memorable honestly.

Grapefruit, lemon & berry mojitos

Bite of Monica’s octopus curry bun

Orange soft-serve

Dinner at Reichan, Hiroshima, Japan:

Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki (mine versus Monica’s)

Osaka-style okonomiyaki is like the one I ate in Tokyo (then promptly got sick), but Hiroshima-style is made in layers. This makes customising the dish so much easier (no egg, no meat, no onions) and the end result resembles fried noodles with extra floury bits. Christina, Monica and the entire kitchen staff were highly amused by my order.